Pretty face

You saw me as a pretty face and I baffled and befuddled your expectations on every count

I never saw myself as a pretty face and thus it's taken me now 20 years to understand how and why we failed

Now you have daughters and you will never see them as pretty faces
You will love and cherish and celebrate them

And you will never realise how at one time you saw another as just a pretty face
You will never make this realisation  about yourself for even I took 20 years to do so

Thank you once again and again
You have been a teacher like none other
Teaching me in ways I would never otherwise learn .
Of value and self worth
Of spite and kindness
of openness and secrecy